The Ambulance Service is hiring new staff to meet an expected yearly 3.7% increase in demand.

A recent demand and capacity review has looked at how the Emergency Operations, Patient Transport Service and Emergency Control Centre cope with the island's needs.

It has concluded the service needs nine full-time equivalent staff members to meet current demands, with 13 in total to meet future increases.

Jersey’s government has allocated the Ambulance Service £1 million to £1.2 million in annual funding to help with staffing.

It comes after a peer review found that emergency services in Jersey are understaffed.

The Ambulance Service will be given the funding for the next three years as part of the 2023-26 Government Plan.

Chief Ambulance Officer Peter Gavey says work has already started to recruit more staff.

"With the expected growth and demand on the service and the current demand that we're experiencing, it was recommended that some internal moves are considered to support the front-line operations."

A reshuffle of its 60 employees should help to meet the targets.

Some technicians will train to become paramedics, filling vacancies caused by retirement and staff departures.

New posts have also been created using the allocated government funding.

Progress has already been made to fill the roles with job adverts already closing, although the vacancies may not be filled by the end of the year.

This is due to the needing staff who are already qualified and notice periods for people who are leaving their old jobs to join the Ambulance Service.

However, the new recruitment process seems to have come at just the right time, as staff are starting to feel the extra workload.

"Shifts are much busier than they used to be, so trying to manage that, I think staff will be pleased to see the new staff coming in. It will certainly help managing that demand and give them the time that they need to deal with each job appropriately."